Archive | March, 2014

Many husbands need to go on meetings, project work or short term cooperation to beautiful and interesting places. If that’s Paris, Cape Town or New York. How lovely would it be to just accompany him? Get your bags packed and leave for while the routinized daily routine. Explore the new city while your partner is working and tell him during dinner what you experienced, found out and done the whole day. Walking hand in hand back to your hotel and enjoying the excitement of being a tourist.Continue Reading →

Sometimes we just don’t know what to do on weekends. As we established already a very normal life here with “working hours”, kindergarten, friends, sport courses and kids activities plus we’ve already seen a lot of Mauritius there’s now another world to explore. The world of the rich, luxury used and keen on relaxing.

Last weekend was our Heritage weekend at Bel Ombre, in the South of Mauritius. The South is lined with beautiful, white sandy beaches. No towns, only small villages and the green hills directly behind. It makes a pretty good scenery.

Yes, the paradise is wet. Sometimes. Very seldom, but still there are days on which one can’t go to the beach. We are now 6 month in Mauritius and there were maybe 15 rainy days.

To be honest, I am happy about these days. No pool, no beach and so we are forced to look around and do something different. No sun that burns our skin, comfortable temperature and less traffic. Let’s see what you could do on a rainy day in Mauritius: Continue Reading →

During one of our previous holidays in Italy we made the experience that everything was only about the kids. Don’t get me wrong, that’s okay, but in between we’d also like to have some hours for us as a couple. It’s different to go out for dinner alone instead of with a 2 and a 4 year old who tip over their drinks, complain about the food or have a high need for communication.

So we were sitting on our terrace, sipping on our glass wine and talked about our future holiday in Thailand. We saw us wandering from one playground to the next, missing all attractions (like on our holiday in New Zealand). And if you come back home lucky to have the kindergarten and some hours alone it would proof that travelling is more stressful than sitting at home. It sometimes is, but one shouldn’t get the desire to return home only to gain some space.

The sky was dark, it was a bit chilly and so wonderful calm. Our mind wandered from one topic to the next. We laughed and told us funny stories about the day, previous vacations and how we consider Thailand to be. In one of these creative moments I said: Why don’t we take a nanny with us?

Moment of silence.

Travel with a nanny? Which nanny? We don’t have a nanny as it was always important for us to spend most of the time with them.

If we don’t have a nanny yet, let’s get one.

Here are my advices for you, if you think about travelling with freetime and entertained kids Continue Reading →

While we visited Hua Hin, a lovely city where the king spends his summer, we decided to have a professional photo shooting with the whole family.

Thailand is well known for its luxurious and cheap accommodations. At Dhevan Dara Resort and Spa we rented a private villa with two bedrooms and a private pool for only 82€ per night. It was spacious with an amazing kitchen and even an outdoor jacuzzi.

Best surrounding for a photo shooting! Our reasons to do it:

I hate looking for Christmas presents on the last minute. Especially for grand parents who seem to have everything it’s not easy to find a gift that makes them happy. Having wonderful pictures of their grand children in a calendar might suit them. Now we had the christmas presents already on September! Can you imagine how stress-free Christmas shopping was? Only the question occurred which photos I’d love to have in the calendar. It was not an easy choice.

We rarely have pictures from all of us. It’s always me and the kids or Harry and the kids, but seldom we all together. When we are old, sitting in front of the fire and look at the photos we’d be happy we spent the money. In memoriam to a great holiday in Thailand!

A photo shooting in a different country will be a lot cheaper than in your home country. However, it was like that for us. We had a 3-4h shooting with 50 photos on DVD for 110 €. Amazing price. We even had the opportunity to get all 318 photos for a little ad on.

It was so much fun! We just took motives that stood around, like the motorbike of the cleaning staff or the old jeep at the car park. The great environment of the Dhevan Dara Resort, Mai and her team and our awesome kids made it a very special experience. The 3-4hours were for sure exhausting. so we ended up in the pool and afterwards in the jacuzzi:

First of all there are two to three times more women than men. This leads to a fight for being the Gorillas wife. One can imagine how pleased men are to see that they are such a high quoted human capital. They sometimes walk around proud, aware of their power and the possibilities they have. Nevertheless they are nice and handsome and it’s not their fault being educated like that, encouraged by current circumstances.

Another good point is, that most of the Seychelloise are Catholic, but don’t transfer their belief into daily life. This affects values regarding family and relationship. 50-60% of all born children are without married parents. Often the father doesn’t even know his child. Their openness and relaxing view on bonds, commitments and exclusivity make it a fascinating and colourful situation shown here:

A 50 year old, wealthy businessman is married to a US lady since 20 years. During his marriage and before he had several mistresses, but this is public and known by his wife. He had one child with a lady before he got married and still “makes love” with her. This lady is still involved in his business. During his marriage he had another 3 children with his different mistresses. Now what happened? He is father of 6.5 children, two with his US wife. Continue Reading →

Praslin is the second biggest island of the Seychelles. Funnily it’s naturwise and from the infrastructure in the middle between Mahé and La Digue. On Praslin one needs a rental car to discover the Bacardi beach or the Nature Park. The busses stop sometimes far away from the main spots and you should like to walk, if you choose this way of transport. Continue Reading →

The Seychelles consist of many different islands. One of the calmer ones is La Digue. Only 3x2km big it’s easy to orientate yourself. A broad diversity of hotels and guesthouses with varying prices make it easy for everyone’s budget. Although the Seychelles and especially La Digue are not a budget friendly destination. Nevertheless La Digue on the Seychelles is the perfect place for enjoying time on the beach and do cycling tours. There are only taxis or construction trucks. And many many bicycles.

The bike rental companies rent also children bikes. Nevertheless we took 2 bikes with baby seat to be flexible enough if the older one complains. It happened that we locked her bike on a fence and she went on on my back seat.

Unfortunately you can’t surround the whole island La Digue, but you can go until a certain point to the east. On mostly plastered streets through tropical forest, jungle and directly next to the sea it is awesome to cycle around. Rarely hills make it even easier.

On our way to the east via La Passe we made some discoveries: giant turtles and bats just next to us. In the forest we saw lizards and giant crabs, common animals on the Seychelles. Continue Reading →

When you arrive in La Digue, Seychelles, it’s only via ferry. So the port became the center. All signs saying “Jetty” lead you the way there. But please don’t compare this port to the ones you know from other islands. It’s more or less one landing stage, some nice catamarans in the water and few speed boats. Under the trees there is the main meeting point. Locals and tourists enjoy the shade and have a chat.

Directly at the port are several bike rentals. A normal bike is 100SR per day, one with a child seat at the back 150SR. But there are also bikes with 3 wheels for those who’d like to have it more comfortable. Most of the bikes are equipped with a basket at the back or front to store you’re beach utensils. We made very good experiences with Neddy, 254 6193. [email protected] On our third day I had a puncture in the wheel. He came immediately to the port, although he wasn’t working on that day. After 15min the wheel was changed and we’ve been on the road again.

Other transportation possibilities is the Ox cart. Surely an adventure, driving slowly in an ancient way over the island.

The most modern way is a taxi. It’s about 150-200SR. Unfortunately they drive very fast for a mostly car free island. At the times when the ferry arrives it’s a nightmare having the taxis going 20 times from the port to the hotel and back.

Archives

“Making experiences instead of buying souvenirs”

Barbara is a mother of two daughters. She loves travelling and exploring new countries. To be close to the nature and the locals is her approach, therefore she's not keen on staying at hotels but likes individual tours. With a huge caravan she explored Europe and has a lot of experience in travelling with young kids. Her husband manages his company from all over the world with his laptop on his knees. For him the Internet connection is a main point.